


First Act: Missing Chapter

by fadeverb



Series: Kai and Mannie [3]
Category: In Nomine
Genre: M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-16
Updated: 2013-08-16
Packaged: 2017-12-23 17:35:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/929237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadeverb/pseuds/fadeverb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few things happened after the triad finally caught up with Kai.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Act: Missing Chapter

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was written after the rest of _First Act_. For those who want to slot it in, it goes between chapters 13 and 14 of that piece. As the rating and tone are somewhat different from the rest of that story--and it's not particularly necessary to the plot--I've chosen to leave it as a separate story. Call it a midquel.

They made me pass over the keys to the car, and I don't know what Judgment needs with a Miata, but they're right: it'd be hard to justify a sports car in my current Role. Besides, there's a fair chance it'll turn up as stolen, and Judgment gets picky about things like that. So Mannie and I end up in the back seat with Dedan, while Nomikos drives. They aren't letting Mannie near any doors, which I can't blame them for, but it means he's stuck between me and a Cherub. 

Dedan does all of his questioning leaning in front of Mannie, and Adala mostly takes notes, and Mannie? He doesn't say anything, except when they ask him to clarify some statement of mine, which isn't often. They have a lot of questions, and I do my best to explain what I've been doing of late, so far as I can. Some of my decisions don't sound as reasonable now as they did when I made them.

Finally the car rumbles to a stop in a gravel driveway. We're out in the middle of nowhere, so far from city lights I can make out thousands of individual stars overhead. I climb out of the car, and it's a lovely thing to be able to stretch my legs. I hate riding around with someone else doing the driving; it makes my toes itch to just sit there, especially in such a cramped space. I'm on the short side for a human, but Mannie's tall and Dedan's vessel is broad. "Where's this?"

"A safe place," Nomikos says. He stands beside me, and Dedan's at the other door, and I realize they're making sure Mannie doesn't try to run for it now that the car's stopped. The Lilim wouldn't do that, and it annoys me that they think so little of his promises, but...they don't know him. As far as they're concerned, he's a Renegade demon who's agreed to be cooperative when faced with overwhelming numbers and no exit. They'll come around once they get to know him. "Not a Tether, but a place to wait for a few hours while we arrange things."

"Arrangements?" I'm not sure I like the sound of that.

"How to get you back home in an inconspicuous manner. What to do with him," Nomikos says. Mannie's gotten out of the car over by Dedan, and even when it's this dark I can see he's wearing his blank face. He doesn't know how to deal with the triad any more than they know how to deal with him, and they're the ones with the numbers on their side. "Come on. Let's get inside."

The house we step into is old, unlit, locked. There's an incongruously modern keypad on the door, where Nomikos punches in a code. He doesn't turn on any lights until everyone is inside and the door is closed behind us.

This place reminds me of the safehouse Jack and Kelly were at, but far more tidy. It has the look of a place where people stop by, but don't live. I've been in motels with more personality. "We have questions for you," Adala says to Mannie, and then she and Nomikos lead him away into some other room, for whatever sort of conversation Judgment has with cooperative demons who want to redeem. I hope they won't be stern at him; he's had a few really rough weeks.

Dedan pats my shoulder, once the two of us are alone. "We were worried," he says, in the way that means _he_ was worried. "Here we were thinking you had a safe Role that could last for decades, and we show up to find you've run off with a pack of Windies. And with a demon. You need to spend more time thinking about things before acting on an impulse, or even a request from a friend."

I lean up against him and wrap my arms around him. Cherubim are comforting to hug in any of their forms. "I'm not so good with the thinking, Dedan. I'm more about the doing. And it did seem like the right thing to do. I still think it was, even if I should have left a note."

He pats me on the back, the awkward reaction of a Judge who isn't used to being hugged. I get that from them. "Kai, we appreciate that you mean well. But you're too trusting. He's a _demon_ , and from what you've told me, a powerful one. The things he's done--"

"Don't matter, if he means to redeem." Dedan frowns above me, and I step back so I can look him in the face properly. "Look, I _know_ that you have to think about...what's fair, and just, and punishment and rewards as appropriate. But I'm not Judgment, and I don't think that way. What's wrong with a little mercy, or grace? Anything that's been done is done, and can't be undone. But giving someone a chance to redeem is..." I sigh. I don't have the skills to express this. "He can't make up for anything he's done unless he gets a chance to try, right?"

Dedan shakes his head. "You'd give the benefit of the doubt and a chance to repent to Lucifer himself, wouldn't you?"

"If he asked for it. I don't think he would. But Mannie did."

"He's a Lilim, Kai. That sort...doesn't often try for redemption. And of those who do, not all survive."

"So it speaks all the better of him that he's willing to take the risk, doesn't it?"

Dedan sits down on a sagging couch. "Kai," he says, and I sit beside him instead of pacing because I can tell he's trying to say something he thinks is important, "I just...don't want you to be hurt. If what you want to believe doesn't turn out to be true. You keep believing such...such optimistic things."

"I'd rather live with disappointment than go around thinking everything's going to collapse." I pat him on the knee. "Don't worry about me, Dedan. I may not be the brightest angel out there, but I can usually take care of myself. Mind, I _really_ appreciated you three showing up when you did. If the Boss hadn't been able to spare the time to help, we would have been in serious trouble." I glance at the door the others disappeared through. "Is that what they're asking him about? The Boss was Kyrioing my vessel, so I wasn't there to see what happened." It could hurt, but there's a card in the pocket of my jeans to remind me that the Boss cares, and so it's only...disappointing, maybe. That I couldn't see him myself. But of the two of us, Mannie's the one who needed to see an Archangel in action.

"That, and other matters." Dedan stands up, so now I can stand up too, and do a cartwheel across the room we're in. It's a sort of living room entryway, and only big enough for one. "Deciding how to proceed is complicated--"

"Not at all! Find a Tether of Lightning that's willing to look after him until he's calmed down, and there you go."

"...a Tether of Lightning?"

I balance on my hands and take a few steps there, all the world upside-down for me to look at from a different angle. "Of course. He used to work for Vapula, and he's a scientist at heart. Who else but Jean would know what to do with him? Point him in the right direction and he'll do good work, I'm sure of it. I could see him working in the techier aspects of Creation too, but the Boss didn't choose to enlist Mannie while the two of them were together, so Lightning it is. That's my take on it. He might have a better idea."

"It is...not a bad idea. I'll suggest it to them." Dedan moves over to the door, steps inside. I'm on my feet and following him inside before he can close the door again. Probably not what he meant for me to do, but I'm starting to get concerned about Mannie being stuck in a room with strangers for so long. "Adala, Kai was suggesting--" Dedan stops once he realizes I'm right behind him. "Kai, if you could excuse us--"

"Sure," I say, and grab Mannie's arm. He's gone so blank it means I'm way overdue on stepping in, and I don't like the way he's sitting in that chair. Always a bad sign when he starts trying to make himself look smaller. "I'll let you guys get right on that discussion. Hey, Mannie, let's check out the kitchen."

"I don't think--" Nomikos begins, but I roll my eyes at him.

"I'm not going to run off in the night. But he needs a break from getting stared at by Judgment, and I bet you three have stuff to talk about that you'd rather us not be in on. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him." I drag Mannie out of the room with both my arms wrapped around one of his, kick the door shut behind us, and grin up at him. "I thought you could use some rescuing."

"Possibly." He's still blank. So I drag him away from that door before anyone in the triad changes their mind, and upstairs to a dark wood-paneled hallway. I find a light switch. The lights are old, dim, and all the darker for the windows being covered with heavy curtains. I try handles along the hallway until I find one that opens, and then it's inside to a bedroom with boarded-up windows. The light in this one flickers, but it's enough to see by, so I kick this door shut, and let go of him.

"There you go. Two doors, a staircase, a hallway, and a room between you and the triad. Feeling better?"

He shrugs. Sits down on the bed. "Only surprised that I'm still alive." His hands are trembling, and I think it means that he's letting go of whatever has kept him blank and functional during the questioning. "I...don't know what happens next."

"What happens next is they take you to a Tether of Lightning, if they have any sense at all, which they do." I drop cross-legged to the floor in front of him. I'd rather keep moving, but he needs something to look at that's familiar. "Then the nice angels there get you some much needed therapy until you're able to deal with the concept of redemption, and then they call Jean, he shows up and, wham, you're an angel. That's how it works."

He manages a smile. "The way you think is strange, Kai, but comforting. Perhaps too optimistic."

"Yeah, Dedan said the same thing. But look at what we've done so far. Picked up that artifact you were looking for, dodged the Game all the way up to meeting my Boss, and here you are now."

"With a triad downstairs."

"They're not going to hurt you, Mannie. They don't trust you yet, not by a long shot, and they're going to ask questions and keep you close and probably do some glaring, but no one is going to hurt you." I wouldn't let them, not that they'd try. "It's Judgment, Mannie, not the Game."

His smile has gone crooked. "I'm not sure I'm ready to be Judged. I don't have much of a position to work out a plea bargain from."

"So it's a good thing they'll drop you off with Lightning. Lightning isn't judgmental, it's _practical_." I leap to my feet, more than tired of sitting still. "Do you trust me?"

"I...ah. Yes. I suppose I do." Not the most rousing vote of confidence, but it's more than enough, coming from him.

"Then believe me. They're not going to hurt you. This will turn out _well_." He doesn't look convinced, though he's not arguing with me. I sigh. "You need to relax. I'd take you for a drive, except that they'd freak if I ran off with you in the car. Besides, I never learned how to hot wire something, and I think Nomikos has the keys. I don't suppose you'd settle for a quick race around the house?"

"...er," he says. "Not quite what I had in mind."

"So what did you have in mind?" I take a quick spin, wishing for my motorcycle back, but I'll have a chance to ride it again soon. Too bad there aren't any Lightning Tethers near where I work; I'd love to take him on a ride. Not so fast as the Miata, but motorcycles are intensely _personal_ in a way cars aren't. "They'll be talking for a while yet, and it's not like I have anything better to do than entertain you. I'm open to suggestions."

"Only one suggestion," he says, and puts one hand on my wrist, pulls me towards him, and kisses me.

Which surprises me more than it really should, now that I consider recent events.

That's all, just the one kiss, and he pulls back to watch me, hesitant-looking, like someone who's done a set of steps and isn't sure if everything was performed correctly. Doubt and uncertainty seldom make for a relaxing experience, so I lean back in and kiss him back. Now that I know what he has in mind, it's easy enough to let myself be pulled over onto his lap, and he's an awfully good kisser for a scientist. I haven't done much of this to compare it with, but I have no complaints.

One of his hands has found its way to the back of my head, holding me close in a way that reminds me of Dedan ruffling my hair when he speaks kindly to me. Mannie pulls back for a moment, though he's not going far when I have both my arms around him. "You don't mind--"

"Do I look like I'm minding?" A quick kiss to the place beneath his chin, because I'd rather keep him distracted than worrying. "So the car _was_ a come-on."

"Well. To some extent. It's not like I could bring you an opera house..." He's busy talking, so I concern myself with pulling off his jacket, and then working my way down the buttons in his shirt. I usually wear T-shirts, but I think I could learn to like shirts with buttons. All the little pieces to fiddle with. "They're not portable, and while one could design an inflatable opera house, the acoustics would be dreadful. I'm not sure how much that matters for ballet, though. Is there singing in ballet?" I think I've managed to get his mind off of the triad downstairs, if he's talking like this.

"Not generally," I say, "but sometimes there's ballet in opera." And it's not fair if he's going to start kissing me again when it's my turn to talk, but I think I can work with this level of unfairness, so I concentrate on pushing my shoes off, one foot against the other, while he becomes very distracting with his mouth.

It takes some effort to get his shirt off, because he has one hand at the back of my head and the other wrapped around my waist, and isn't much inclined to move either, but I finesse the sleeves down past his wrists, and just as I finish he slides back, rolls over, and I'm flat on my back beneath him on the bed. And then he stops, hovering over me with the most peculiar expression on his face. "You're quite sure you're an angel..."

"Never been anything else," I say, and pull off my own shirt, because he isn't getting around to it himself quickly enough for my taste. It's clumsy to manage while I'm on my back like this, but he finally clues in enough to help me, and tosses my shirt off the bed somewhere onto the floor. "What's bothering you?"

"You're sure you're, ah. Allowed to do this?" It's ridiculously sweet, that he's suddenly worried about me, like the Boss is going to show up and shake a finger at me for this distraction.

"Mannie, my Boss is not going to throw a fuss. It's a Rite of Creation, if not one I've ever tried before." Though I've gotten enough description and theory from friends to think I can work this out. "So stop stressing over it. We're trying to help you relax, right?"

"I was more thinking of what your triad would--" He stops. Blinks at me. "You've _never_ done this before. And you work for Creation."

"Creation's a big Word. Lots of room for variation. Just didn't come up." I spread my legs wider until he's lying between them. "But I'm sure I can follow your lead. Unless you just wanted to chat--"

The way he's kissing me suggests that's not what he had in mind. Good. I'd kinda like to find out what it is that everyone else keeps saying is so great about sex. So far, it's better than hugs, and I'll admit I like the focus. He's paying attention to me and no one else, and if I can work at it, maybe I can make him feel better about this whole marvelous mess he's in.

I do a fair amount of kissing back, and find that there's something weirdly comfortable about lying here like this with him on top of me, so long as I keep up the activity on my part. It could feel like being trapped, but it...doesn't. It's like knowing your friends are watching your back, or when someone stops and really _listens_. Even when his knees move and my legs are pinned this is...fine. It's just fine. My hands keep moving, I'm still moving, and everything here is fine.

Mannie props himself up on his elbows, staring down at me. I enjoy it when he looks at me like that, like I'm the only person in the room. Okay, so I am the only other person in the room, but there are oceans of difference between a casual glance and that look. I couldn't spend forever like this, not with so much to do, but it's like the last moment of a performance, when all the story's been told and you can breathe out in that one final move. "What did I ever do to deserve you?" he asks.

"You and Judges. Always with the deserving of things." I can't sit up far enough to kiss him from this position, so I settle for poking him in the chest. "Are you going to help me figure out how to do this, or do I need to work from hearsay and theory?"

"Should've written up a flowchart," Mannie says, and settles back down on top of me. He frowns, and reaches for a pocket. "Actually, while you were driving, I--"

"No flowcharts," I say, and pull his hand back away from the pocket. "I know you and your diagrams, and we're never going to get anywhere if you go scientific about it. You have an Ofanite here. Patience is _not_ what we're known for."

"Point taken." And now that hand is at the back of my head, right where I like it. The thought occurs to me that my triad might disapprove, but I did say I'd keep an eye on him, and he's _definitely_ not going anywhere without my noticing.

The kissing progresses nicely, but I recall, from what I've been told and spotty evidence from various books, that it's considered appropriate to do things which require less clothing. So I let him keep on with the kissing, because he seems to be enjoying it and I'm happy to accept it, while I start working on his pants. Buttons and zippers are _tricky_ from this position, especially since he doesn't seem inclined to let go, but I can work with this. And then once that's started on, I switch to a different hand and start getting my own pants off.

When people described sex to me, they never told me how complicated the whole business of _clothing_ becomes. I wonder if it's standard to take off all the clothing before getting started? I'll have to ask someone, the next time the subject comes up. I think I'm doing a reasonably good job, and that's two sets of pants begun on. Some of the positions I've heard about will require no pants at all, though, so I pull away from Mannie for a moment to say, "Pants."

"...pants?"

"Yeah. I'm led to believe we need to get them off to continue, and I can't do that from here."

"Ah. Correct." Mannie sits up, glances at the bedspread. "I'd worry more about the mess I intend to make if this house didn't belong to Judgment. They can cope." With his assistance we get the both of us out of remaining clothing quickly enough to even satisfy an Ofanite's taste for how things ought to be done.

Now that we're moving more, Mannie decides to toss in more variety, because his kisses move from my mouth to chin, neck, chest, all the way down to my navel, which I'd formerly considered a useless bit of decoration but I'm now becoming fond of. I've worn this vessel for decades, and I thought I'd worked out every bit of how to use it, head to toes, but it seems I managed to skip a step or two. "Hey," I say, "let me try that."

He raises his head. "Try what?"

"What you're doing." One brief motion to pull out from under him, push him down on his back instead, and try the exact same move. Lips, chin, bit under the neck, neck, top of the shoulders, chest, all the way down to about where he stopped, and I think the way his legs give a little twitch beneath me means that I'm doing something right. Kissing gets repetitive on its own, so on the way back up the same path I figure out what I can do with tongue, lips, and a touch of teeth right at the top of his neck. If I'm doing this wrong, he's being nice enough to not tell me. At the end of the run I give him a proper kiss again, and say, "That working for you?"

"Yes." There's a trace of hiss to what he says, I think in a good way. There's something weirdly comfortable about lying here on top of him, and maybe sleeping once in a while wouldn't be so bad if I were doing it curled up against someone like this. Not that I have any intention of _sleeping_ when I have a new type of dancing to try out. I'm not sure what dance this is--ballet is right out, and interpretative dance calls for a fancier premise, or at least music--but it's not that different from dancing. Must be one of the steps that requires a partner.

And, hey, dancing is what I do. So I get back to the dance working out the steps as I go along, mouth on skin to see what makes him move beneath me, and I wonder if anyone's ever tried choreographing sex? You'd have to work out how to annotate all the variations on the moves, test the given piece of choreography, and trying to _teach_ it would be complicated. I'll have to ask someone else who works for the Boss if it's been done.

Pacing is even more fun with my mouth than it is with my feet, and I'm starting to get this particular circuit down when Mannie shifts beneath me, when two hands catch me and pull me back up to a more face-to-face position. "Am I doing something wrong?" I ask, because this isn't my area of expertise.

"No, not at all." He kisses me again, and I think he's starting to use that as punctuation. Now that's one way to keep a dialogue engaging. "But I would like to try a few other things so long as I have the chance. Preferably _before_ any of the, ah, any of your friends come looking for us."

I'd point out that I've heard more than two can participate in this sort of dance, but I don't think Mannie would appreciate it. Besides, much as I like my triad, it's true that Judgment can get twitchy about things like this. "True enough. What's next?"

"You would ask that." He sits up again, pulls me forward until I'm in his lap. I take the opportunity to wrap my legs around him, push him a little away from the headboard on this bed until there's room for my legs back there. "I didn't expect to have to explain things, when I, ah, imagined this." A wry smile, just for me. "In my imagination the lighting was better, the surroundings higher class, and I'm sure there was no triad downstairs."

"It's weird how things work out, sometimes." I like the way he shivers when I nip his shoulder, not hard, only letting him know I'm there. "Sorry I don't know how to do things yet--"

"Don't _apologize_ , I'm not, ah, criticizing. It only makes things...different." His fingers trace a path down my spine, back up again. "I would ask you what wanted, but I don't think any answer I got out of you would be useful."

"Whatever you want, Mannie." My chin fits right over his shoulder, reminds me of the first time I ever went riding on a motorcycle with Jack in front of me, trying to explain how everything worked over the noise of traffic and motorcycle engine and wind, and me wrapped tight to him half terrified of falling off such a strange machine, and overjoyed with how _fast_ it would take the two of us. I'd like to take Mannie out on my bike some time, see how he likes speed when it's not two seats in a car but a single straight line to ride on, two wheels in perfect motion. There must be some way to combine sex with speed, though I can't think of it yet. That's something to ask Jack and Kelly about the next time I see them.

"See, I knew you were going to say something like that. It is," he says, one hand playing with my hair and the other still on my spine while I work my mouth against his shoulder, "entirely unhelpful." A hiss of breath when I nip. I must be doing something right. "This would be simpler if your vessel were female, as that makes for more obvious approaches."

"You're making it too complicated." I put one hand on each of his shoulders, lean back to stare at the flickering light in the ceiling. Sudden space between us where there wasn't before, and I'll leave it there for a moment. "It's simple. Figure out what _you_ want to do. Let me know what to do if I'm not doing it yet. And we go from there."

One arm brings me back to his chest, so I drop my chin over his shoulder again. Knew he was going to do that. Space was made beautiful for a moment in knowing it would disappear. Someone needs to show him how things become beautiful, and how to make them so. "I have one chance to make you happy," he says, and his voice has this strange confusion, I don't know why. I'm being as clear as I can. "I want to do it _right_."

Poor Mannie. For all his smarts, sometimes he just doesn't get it. I kiss the spot at the side of his neck, where his jacket collar would cover. "If you're happy, I'm happy."

"You really mean it."

"Wouldn't say it if I didn't." He needs to spend more time around angels. And he needs to hurry up, if he doesn't want to get interrupted by Judgment. "So. I'm curious. I'm impatient."

"You're an Ofanite."

"Yeah, pretty much the same thing. Going to satisfy my curiosity?" Both his hands behind me, digging into muscles from shoulders to the small of my back, and it's a lovely feeling, but I've had plenty of back rubs before. "If you're not up for it I could go ask my triad to explain how this is supposed to work." That's enough to surprise a laugh out of him. I grin over his shoulder where he can't see it, and try for my most innocent voice. "Think they'd go for it?"

Down on my back on the bed, wrong way around with the pillows beneath my feet, giggling at Mannie's expression. "You are utterly mad," he says, at plants a bite at my throat, nice little bite like I've never felt before, "but apparently, so am I."

"All the better. We match." He hasn't let his weight down on me yet, which leaves me enough room to shift down here, run the heel of one foot down from his back to his ankles. He hasn't got the build of a professional dancer, but he could move well enough with some training. As long as he's been around, he's bound to have picked up a few waltz steps, and if he's forgotten, I could show him how again.

He's hesitating. One of those strange looks that he used to give me and I could never interpret before, all of them suddenly making a marvelous sense. If I'd known then what I know now... But it wouldn't have been the same. There are demons and there are Lilim and then there's Mannie, who brought me a fast car because he didn't know any other way to ask me to run away with him. And what's he so afraid of now? I don't want to ask that question, so I poke him in the stomach with one foot and say, "Ofanite. Impatient."

"Redundant." All of him on top of all of me, space disappearing again, like the curtain rising on the performance after intermission, time to see that the set's been changed, figure out which characters are ready to speak or dance or sing. For once I don't know what to do with my hands, he's taking care of the lower half of this body, pushes my knees back, runs a tongue down places I never knew could feel this way, but my hands? I don't know what to do with my hands. The bedspread won't let me get a grip on anything, I need to hold onto something now. Entirely unfair that he has plenty to do with hands and mouth and I can't properly reach him, but I _did_ say whatever he wanted, so it's enough to let my legs shift the way he wants them to, and that, I like _that_ , if we have time I want to try it out myself and let him figure out what to do with his hands while I use my tongue in ways I hadn't previously considered.

Just when I think I could live with my fingers scrabbling against the bedspread for as long as he wants to keep that up, he moves back up to kiss me, and it's not that I have an objection to kissing but I _liked_ that. Little bite on his lip, I did say whatever he wants, and he seems happy enough with this, which is good, he could use more happiness in his life. "You had to stop?" Didn't mean to say it, because I wouldn't want him to think I wasn't being honest before.

"Wouldn't want to bore you," he says. One hand collects both of mine, presses my fingers down above my head right at the end of the bed, and I like the way the pupils in his eyes have spread out until his eyes are nearly black. It's more than likely only that the light in here is dim, but I like to think that he's looking at me, and into me, and I wonder what I need right now, that he can see inside me. But I can't think too hard about that because he's left one hand down below where his mouth was before, it slides along damp skin to remind me he hasn't forgotten, didn't forget about that at all.

"I am. So. Not bored. Right now." Strange how I can't keep a full sentence in one piece, and all my sentences are running together in my head, I have never moved so fast before while staying entirely in one place and with him above me, I could stay here a long time.

"Good." One of his fingers slides inside me, and I can't help the quick sharp twitch at that, it's something I've _heard_ about, theory, but I'm learning more than I'd known before about the difference between theory and practice. Makes sense, he's a scientist, he knows about turning theory into something that _works_ , and this? Is working for me. I don't know where my hands would go if he weren't holding them down, and I could push his hand away at any time, but that's not the point, my fingers tangling around his and he isn't looking at me anymore, has this expression like he's...concentrating. Wants to do this right, and I'm happy to help him, could not object to this, little bit of motion all his doing but who would think such a thing could make my body _feel_ like this. 

If I were in celestial form, I could wrap myself around him every which way in an endless loop of fire, but there is something beautiful about the limitations of a vessel. All points and limits and hard-soft in strange places, but the restrictions are a form to work with, the edges of the stage, the rhyme and meter of a sonnet. When he moves more of his hand inside there's pain waiting off-stage to play its part, but only a small part, background actors to give the main characters something to work in front of, turn acting and memorized lines into a moment of reality. "Don't stop," I manage to say, lick a line across a bit of his neck that I can reach, salt tang that says he's putting _effort_ into this. I want to say more, about how I'll reciprocate if we get a chance, but speaking has gone all tricky, like my mind is pulling together thoughts in proper order but this body is paying more attention to his actions than my directions.

"But," he says, takes a breath, it occurs to me he's having almost as much trouble speaking as I am, "we've nearly reached. The interesting part." His hand leaves my wrists, unfair again, I was coming up with all sorts of ways to use my fingers inside that palm and along the back of his hand, and when the hand down below pulls out I want that _back_ but. He knows what he's doing. All the buzz in my head starting to subside as he rearranges my legs around him, catches my gaze, and...that smile, it was deliberate. And then.  
 So that's what that bit of a male vessel is for.

I might have made some sound, can barely keep track of what I'm doing, strange place to be for an Ofanite, all my body pushing up against his, and him pushing right back. He's given me his hands again, about time, one hand on each of my wrists and his face close enough to mine that I can kiss him the way he's been showing me, and every move down below is reciprocated between our lips. Every move he makes like pushing the pedal down further in that marvelous sports car. Internal acceleration moving along, and does my body have a maximum velocity?

Yes.

Like the first time I crashed my motorcycle, spun off into the air without anything beneath me, and suddenly slow in my mind, the thought, flying in Heaven is never so terrifyingly marvelous as this.

But hitting the ground doesn't hurt nearly so much, here.

Mannie's hands so tight on my wrists that this will leave bruises, he's making that a habit, I'm fine with that, and then, only him lying on top of me, face over mine. He drops a light kiss, nothing more than a touch of his lips, to my forehead, and at that moment I can feel Essence drop into me. It's nice to know that the Boss approves. "I would almost think I was dreaming," he says, "except that the Marches are less...comfortable."

"No dream. Only me." I've found my voice again, somewhere in the aftermath of the crash. "And how _are_ you, now?"

"More, ah, relaxed. Among...other things." He's speaking around whatever it is that he means, but when he's shown me this much tonight, I'm not going to ask for more. Mannie sits up slowly, hands pulling away from my wrists to run one last time across my chest and stomach, and this is the signal to move along, I think. There's only so much time. "And you?"

"Understanding why other Creationers said this was such a great idea. Never understood the concept of corporeal sex before, with all those solid vessels to deal with, but it really is a sonnet."

"Should I even try to understand that?" I'd be happy to do something for him, but he's standing up, collecting clothing from the floor, so I might as well follow. Another time, if I'm lucky. "Your mind works in strange directions, Kai."

"Nah. I'm pretty much straight lines. Wheels down a road." Pants back on, shirt over my head, socks on feet, shoes over socks, like changing out of a costume after the performance. Every play ends, and even the Ring Cycle winds its way down to an end. With his jacket back on, he's all scientist and reserve again, if more rumpled.

Hey. Rumpling. I did that.

Cool.

I stick a hand through my hair, not that it's ever orderly. "Ready to face the triad again?"

"I'd nearly managed to forget them." A slight twitch, nothing like the way he gets when someone talks about his ex-Superior, so I'll take that as a sign of improvement. "I suspect I'm due for a lecture about corrupting the innocent. Though it would, ah, be worth it."

"It's not _corruption_ , Mannie. The Boss wouldn't have made it a Rite if it were."

He blinks at me. "You know, I'd forgotten about that."

"See? Nothing to worry about." The bed's more rumpled than either of us, and maybe a little messy in places where two bodies showed how different vessels are from celestial forms, so I hope Judgment isn't too picky about how clean this place stays. I mean, they're Judgment, not Purity, right?

Well, I can apologize if needed. And remember to pack a towel next time, to accommodate the mess. I leave the room with Mannie behind me, flip off the light switch, and head back to the stairs to see if the triad's figured out what they're doing.

Halfway down the stairs, we meet Dedan walking up. "I was about to start calling," he says. "You weren't in the kitchen. I believe we may all be grateful, mind." Then he stops, and blinks a few times. "Kai..."

"Yes?" He's not the sort to trail off his sentences like that; my triad's not vague, and the Cherub's nearly as direct as Adala. He turns to walk beside me the rest of the way down the stairs, and maybe it's that the whole triad's been chasing me halfway across the country. They're stressed, too. So at the bottom of the stairs I give him a hug, and say, "Something the matter?"

Dedan shakes his head. "Nothing you need to worry about, Kai. We'll take care of things from here."

"That's good. Because I'm not so good with planning of things, after all." Back home to my motorcycle and classes and kids, it's a wonderful thing to consider, even if they won't let me keep the car. I spin around to hug Mannie, who's got a mask on again, but it's not the blank one, just something neutral to get him through meetings with Judgment. "Take care of yourself, okay? And, here." I dig the notepad out from inside his jacket, I should know by now where he keeps it, and one of his pens. "Here's my number. Remember to call."

Mannie takes back notepad, pen, tucks them inside the inner pockets of his jacket. "I'll do that." Carefully neutral tone, in front of someone a stranger to him. I need to find a way to help him relax for longer. Maybe the next time we get together.

"There are other people arriving to handle this," Dedan says, one hand on my shoulder to pull me away. I can't blame him for being protective, and much as I'd like to stay longer, I can't think of anything I'd say to Mannie that hasn't been said. "It's time to go home."


End file.
